Your English 64 "Love" & Irregular Verbs

Level: B1-C1

"Chart of Irregular Verbs" is offered

Irregular verbs are essential. Learning to use them properly in their different tenses can help you improve your level of spoken English dramatically. In this podcast we explain why they are important and how to learn them. We give you a SHORT ORAL TEST for you to evaluate your level.

We also introduce the story "Was It Love?" that will be broadcast on iTunes in 14 different episodes. The story will include 140+ irregular verbs! It has been a real challenge for us to write this suspenseful tale with the requirement of using every one of these verbs!

Your English 64 "Love" & Irregular Verbs

Below you have the podcast (also available on iTunes)

Recording

Your English 64 Love and Irregular Verbs MP3

Script

Your English 64 Love and Irregular Verbs PDF

You can also read the script directly by going lower down on this page.

"Chart of Irregular Verbs"

Chart in PDF with equivalents in French (IPA-International Phonetic Alphabet is used)

Irregular verb chart with French equivalents PDF

Chart in DOC with equivalents to be added in other languages or by the students themselves (IPA-International Phonetic Alphabet is used)

Irregular verb chart to customize DOC

I would like to mention that Catherine Alhinc made up the different verb groups and contributed very useful information on pronunciation.

We are offering you our "Chart of Irregular Verbs" with the nine different groups. It will help students really get to grips with learning irregular verbs. It comes in a PDF "French" version with equivalents in French, and in a customizable version in DOC where you can write in the equivalents in the language of the student working on the podcasts in the place of the words in French. Thus this chart is in fact "international". We would appreciate it very much if you could send us your "adapted charts" in different languages. We will publish the charts that we receive in DOC.

You can also go to podcasts Nos. 61, 63, and 65 in our other series QualityTime-ESL to get more practice with the verbs of groups 1-3.

Your English No. 64 “Love” and Irregular Verbs

Hi. I’m Marianne Raynaud. My goal is to help you with your spoken English. Now what does “love” have to do with irregular verbs? In this podcast you will soon understand.
I often hear teachers say, “I don’t teach irregular verbs, because it is so boring.” I can’t agree with this opinion. Irregular verbs are truly essential, and knowing them empowers you when you speak English.

Just look at the first two groups in our Chart of Irregular Verbs. You will see in groups 1 and 2 verbs like “feel”, “keep”, “leave”, “meet”, “mean”, “read”, “lead”, and “have”. There are others e.g. “make”, “say”, “pay”, “hear”, “spend”, “send”, and “build”. They are all very important and need to be learned. If you go on to group 3 you will see “bring”, “think”, “buy”, “fight”, and “teach” among others. These twenty verbs I have just cited are really vital to communication, and so are many other irregular verbs. That is why we are offering you a new method to help you memorize them and use them while conversing.

In our other series called QualityTime-ESL Podcasts you will be able to practice these verbs in oral exercises. We have already produced three podcasts and will be offering seven more to cover the nine different groups in our Chart. You can find this chart on our website on the page of this podcast. There are more than 140 irregular verbs. The more you learn the better! And let us point out that all of these verbs except 12 have only one syllable. Those that have two syllables are built on the monosyllabic ones like “become” from “come” and “withhold” from “hold” so they are not difficult to learn.

In this series, Your English, we will soon present you with a story in episodes that includes all of the 140+ irregular verbs. It is called Was It Love? It has been quite a challenge for us to be able to include all 140+ irregular verbs! We hope you will enjoy this story that is full of suspense and at the same time is intended to help you learn to use all these irregular verbs. Just one piece of advice: it will be much easier for you to work on the story if you have already done the exercises in our series QualityTime-ESL Podcasts.

Perhaps you know your irregular verbs already or at least you can recognize them, and you wonder why you should have to learn the forms of the simple past or the past participle. Being able to use these very common verbs correctly in tenses other than the present makes the difference between a speaker at a limited pre-intermediate level and someone at a comfortable intermediate or even advanced level. By learning to use them correctly you will show respect for the English language, and this will be greatly appreciated by the people you meet, who use this language all over the world.

In this podcast we will only offer you a short test on the verbs mentioned above. I will give a sentence in the present tense, and you will say the sentence in the simple past. Listen to the examples.

I say: I feel happy.
You say: I felt happy.
I say: I keep meeting new people.
You say: I kept meeting new people.

Now you go on in the same way. We will start with verbs from group 1. Speak in the blank, and be sure to speak before I give the answer.

I feel happy.
I felt happy.
I keep meeting new people.
I kept meeting new people.
Our plane leaves on Monday.
Our plane left on Monday.
We meet every week.
We met every week.
They are kind and mean well.
They were kind and meant well.
She reads the newspaper in the morning.
She read the newspaper in the morning.
This leads to problems.
This led to problems.

And now the same exercise with verbs from group 2.

I have to take a decision.
I had to take a decision.
She makes wonderful cakes.
She made wonderful cakes.
He says the wrong thing all the time.
He said the wrong thing all the time.
They pay for their expenses.
They paid for their expenses.
I hear them singing.
I heard them singing.
We spend much time with the kids.
We spent much time with the kids.
I send you my love.
I sent you my love.
They build ecological homes.
They built ecological homes.

And now the last ones from group 3. Only five verbs to go!

I bring him milk every morning.
I brought him milk every morning.
We think of you very often.
We thought of you very often.
They buy our products.
They bought our products.
The kids fight all the time.
The kids fought all the time.
I teach you to use irregular verbs.
I taught you to use irregular verbs.

If you have managed to do this exercise without any hesitation, you will have no problems with our other oral drills or with the story entitled “Was It Love?” If you have encountered difficulties, it will be well worth your time to work diligently through the exercises in the QualityTime-ESL series before attacking the story in this, the Your English series. You will be amazed at the progress you will make.

I will end by saying my colleague Catherine Alhinc made up the different verb groups and added useful information on pronunciation to help you. Visit www.qualitytime-esl.com for the script of this podcast and for the Irregular Verb Chart with the different groups. You can also go to podcasts No. 61 & 63 in our other series QualityTime-ESL to get more practice with the verbs we worked on in this episode. Teachers interested in more effective teaching can order "QualityTime-ESL: The Digital Resource Book" (on a DVD) or get it immediately in a slightly lighter downloadable version at the store. Bye for now, and don’t forget to keep smiling.